Introduction to Automator Programming Guide

Describes the concepts and tasks for developing actions, which are bundles loaded by the Automator application.

Who Should Read This Document

Any developer can create actions for Automator, as indeed can system administrators or “power users” who are familiar with AppleScript. But application developers have a particular motivation for developing actions. They can create actions that access the features of their applications, and then install these actions along with their applications. Users of Automator can then become aware of the applications and what they have to offer.

Developers can also contribute to Automator by making their applications scriptable or by providing a programmatic interface (via a framework) that developers use to create their actions.

Organization of This Document

Automator Programming Guide consists of the following articles:

Automator and the Developer describes what Automator can do and discusses the characteristics and types of actions,

How Automator Works gives an overview of the loadable-bundle architecture of Automator and the Objective-C classes of the Automator framework.

Design Guidelines for Actions lists guidelines for action development, including recommendations regarding I/O, naming, and the user interface.

Developing an Action guides you through the major steps required to develop an action.

Show When Run describes the Show When Run feature of actions and explains how you can customize it.

Implementing an AppleScript Action states the requirements for developing an action using AppleScript, suggests approaches you might take, and discusses hybrid actions—that is, actions based on both AppleScript and Objective-C code.

Implementing an Objective-C Action explains how to create an action implemented with Objective-C code.

Creating Shell Script Actions describes the steps required to create an action using a shell script or a scripting language such as Perl or Python.

Creating a Conversion Action describes what is required to create actions whose only purpose is to convert between types of input and output data.

Defining Your Own Data Types discusses custom data types and explains when and how you should define them.

Automator Action Property Reference defines the types and expected values for the Automator properties specified in an action’s information property list ( Info.plist ).

Introduction to Automator Programming Guide

Who Should Read This Document

Organization of This Document

See Also